Adams` `Heaven` Closing In On Tears For Fears` Top Spot

June 14, 1985|By Jan DeKnock, Chicago Tribune

There`s plenty of good news on the charts this week for the English group Tears for Fears, whose first No. 1 hit, Everybody Wants to Rule the World, held on to the top spot despite a blistering challenge from three other big, big songs.

Two of those hits -- Harold Faltermeyer`s Axel F and Billy Ocean`s Suddenly -- had alternated at No. 1 on the adult contemporary list for the past three weeks, and appeared ready to bump Everybody from its lofty position on the main pop charts.

But those two songs failed to gain in popularity this week, allowing a newer, hotter single -- Bryan Adams` classy ballad Heaven -- to jump ahead of them into the No. 2 spot. That kept Tears for Fears at No. 1, because Heaven still hasn`t reached peak airplay.

The continuing success of Everybody Wants to Rule the World has helped Tears for Fears on the album charts, where the group`s LP Songs From the Big Chair had been making a rather slow climb. But this week, Big Chair jumped from No. 6 to No. 4 (dropping Bruce Springsteen`s Born in the U.S.A. to No. 5) for its first appearance in the Top 5.

But next week, the party`s over for Tears for Fears, because Heaven looks like a sure bet to give Bryan Adams his first No. 1 from his Reckless album, which has produced several moderate hits (the latest, Somebody, peaked at No. 11) but not a real smash -- until now. The only song in the Top 20 with the power to challenge Heaven in weeks to come is Phil Collins` Sussudio, which jumped all the way from No. 12 to No. 6 this week.

This week`s pick hit is Like a Surgeon, the latest in a line of amusing parody songs by Weird Al Yankovic, who reached his zenith a year or so with the masterful Eat It (a wicked send-up of Michael Jackson`s megahit Beat It ). This time around, Weird Al takes aim at Madonna`s Like a Virgin, and comes up with enough funny material to make this worth a listen. (One example: At the end of Like a Virgin, Madonna coos sweetly, Can`t you feel my heart beat/ for the very first time? At the same spot in Like a Surgeon, Weird Al sings, with a nasal whine, I can see your heart beat/for the very last time.) There`s not enough novelty to make Like a Surgeon as big a smash as Eat It, but there are enough people sick of the Madonna mania to give Weird Al another hit.